idealpeople blog

What’s a boomerang anyway? We’re not talking about a wooden artefact with Australian/Aboriginal/Indian roots which is used for sport, hunting, war or just for fun.

No, “Boomerang” means a ‘returnee’, a former employee, your ‘alumni’ – someone who used to work with you, and for whatever reason – now they don’t.

We’ve come across the policy of “We don’t re-hire people who left us”, many, many times. Is this pretty dumb or great logic?

Welcome to the latest installment of our Guest Author series, and introducing the esteemed Michael Wright, our company founder and now EVP of Idealpeople International in the APAC region. Michael is officially one of the top four recruiters in the world, according to LinkedIn, and he just loves Boomerangs…

Here at Idealpeople towers, we are inclined to agree that you are generally pretty dumb not to consider Boomerangs. Frequently, we are scouring the planet for a person with experience of X, Y, Z products on behalf of a technology vendor and often, very often, those equipped with the right depth and breadth of product knowledge required for the role (say… Pre-Sales, Technical Architecture or Consulting) are a tiny group of people who have worked for a reseller (VAR), a partner, or the vendor themselves, in the past.

Very often, when we approach these people who used to work for company A – they are happy to return, providing the opportunity is right.

So, to hear from our client’s HR or Staffing team that they have a broad-brush, corporate ‘no rehire’ policy, seems, at first, a little short sighted (we prefer ‘pretty dumb’ actually). Why do such policies exist? Maybe it’s ego, arrogance, a rule defined in an easier recruiting landscape or even pride – but let’s be honest, none of these emotions have a place in the warzone that is today’s recruitment environment, where niche skills are in short supply and highly sought after.

With this in mind, we have put together a bunch of hints which employers may want to consider if they are interested in ‘hooking back up’ with people who have left, whether it’s for the competition, furthering their education, or family reasons.

Before we do that, we’d like you to consider the sound reasoning behind re-hiring people who have worked for you before.

WHY RE-Hire?

- They know the culture
- The cost-to-hire is reduced considerably (compared to other direct-hire or third party services)
- After external work experience, the chances of them leaving (Again) voluntarily is seriously lessened – their loyalty levels are often greater so retention improves.
- Time to hire can be reduced considerably (Providing you maintain some data on, or better still, an ‘active’ connection with your leavers, or your recruiting partners have fast access to your ‘leavers’)
- They know your products or services (and IT systems)
- They know your policies and history
- They know your customers
- Induction and Training efforts will be less involved and consuming
- It sends a good message to your other employees that you are both flexible and ‘worth coming back to’

Once this is accepted as great logic (the WHY) you need to consider the HOW. Hiring previous employees is challenging if you haven’t done it (pro-actively) in the past. So, here’s how…

HOW to RE-Hire

- Ensure the Headhunters or other Staffing Companies you work with are aware of your open mindedness in terms of re-hiring staff (The common assumption is that you won’t re-hire, trust us)
- Train your HR or Recruiting Staff to recognise the value of returnees
- If they left to have a family, ensure access to flexible working initiatives
- Have a visible policy that you encourage sabbaticals
- If they have left for further education, encourage them to undertake paid contract/project work
- Identify the internal managers & co-workers that were left behind and opportunities for project work with them to ease integration and rebuild historically productive relationships.
- Develop (and make ‘visible’) separate training initiatives for returnees.
- Hunt down ‘active’ Alumni groups on the Web, or through the main social networks and have an active/positive dialogue with them.
- If you have a large enough alumni, you can even set up specialized recruiting events for these people.

Do! Diligence!

Sounds great huh? It is great. However, do your due diligence as you would a new hire. If you have a well-developed and structured appraisal programme, or if their old managers work for you still, you can conduct a detailed analysis of their work history, client feedback, manager feedback and so on. It’s absolutely key that you consult all the exit interview data you hold on that person before even considering a re-hire. You…do….do……..exit interviews…..right? Think about whether you were really sad or genuinely elated to see them go and they really are someone who you would like to see return to the business.